


Stories of the Second Self: Vǫrðrrǫk, Twilight of the Guard

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [144]
Category: National Guard - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom, lockdown - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22705663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Wendell Gaumond was traumatized by his service experience in the Ohio National Guard, as a lieutenant of an all-giant heavy assault squad. Being caught in a vampire ambush, Wendell's entire unit is killed, leaving him alone to figure out how to escape and, eventually, to improvise a counterattack.
Series: Alter Idem [144]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Vǫrðrrǫk, Twilight of the Guard

The Gaia Cult had been pushed from most streets and buildings. Mop-up was still taking place in the fringes of Columbus, Ohio, but the main fight had subsided a day ago. So Lieutenant Wendell Gaumond hadn't expected much when his squad was called in by a human Guard unit to a Walmart Supercenter on S High Street and Williams Road.

"Lieutenant?" called a staff sergeant, as he approached the fourteen foot four inch Lieutenant Gaumond, and gazed up at him thumbing over his shoulder. "Got a toppled trailer here with blood smears around the doors. I don't wanna push my guys into the building without backup."

"We'll take care of it, sergeant," Lieutenant Gaumond replied, and turned to address the other giants of the Hotel Alphas of the 37th Special Troops Battalion. "Sergeant, break up the squad into support teams, and tell them to check their loads and power up their weapons."

"Yes sir," the giant Sergeant Marris answered.

Like Wendell himself, Marris and the other giants appeared more dwarfish in proportion; short legs, high foot arches, but with arms somewhat longer compared to their torsos. The giant had sloping foreheads, leading to a lot of cracks about being dumb, and yet every man in Wendell's squad had ASVAB scores fully thirty points higher than average or better.

Small eyes and ears were other hallmarks of being a giant, though relative to humans they were still a little larger. Giant noses, however took up more space on the face for the need to draw in larger volumes of air. Bigger mouths too, but strangely teeth were the same size. Just that giants had more of them. Premolars were in two rows and molars were in three, and according to the Army Medical Corps, they could grow back if lost.

The Ohio National Guard realized what assets they had in giants, werewolves, and angels, and so they reformed the 37th Special Troops Battalion around the three categories of supernaturals. The giants were issued modified semi-auto 20 mm cannons with an M-136 7.62 mm minigun under-mount. It also meant getting the toughest missions, like Norwood in Cincinnati as well as the hardest battles in Columbus.

"LT," Sergeant Marris addressed Wendell and approached him while pointing at the western skyline. "Blood on a trailer and we just lost our biggest gun."

"Can't let the little people do this for us," Wendell assured, and grabbed Marris' shoulder. "Who's the hammer?"

"We are, sir," Marris answered, and left for the squad.

Wendell had the human fire teams position further out and others secured doors of the super center itself. Then, Sergeant Marris sent a three-giant team to back up a human fire team that closed on the back of the capsized trailer. Wendell's nose wrinkled at the smell he was getting from it.

"This isn't going to be good, is it?" a corporal said, before releasing a latch on the door.

The doors didn't open up right away, spurring one of the giants to reach over and force them open. Then, from further back, Wendell caught sight of the massive pile of bodies, all as pale as alabaster and clearly desiccated.

"Fuck," the human corporate cursed, and looked around. "Nightcrawlers, and way more than I wanna run into."

Without warning fire erupted from the Walmart roof and a few other places Wendell couldn't figure out.

"Up against the walls," Wendell shouted, as he himself bolted toward the super center and discharged winding-up short bursts of his M-136 minigun.

Before the anyone got close to where the giant and human teams were the trailer exploded. Wendell, despite his size was blow off his feet and the air was sucked out of his lungs.

His vision darkened, but an adrenaline surge kept him conscious and fumbling for a hold on his weapon. When his sight came back Wendell realized he was looking off to his side. There, he saw a rifle barrel coming out of a sewer vent on the street corner of the super center.

Then more explosions blasted, though not as large as the trailer. Wendell couldn't see any of the human Guardsman, but three giants of a heavy fire team were all laying face down with tears in their clothing and skin smeared with dirt, smoke, and blood.

Not seeing anyone else in the sudden screen of black smoke, Wendell rolled over onto his knees and bolted into a run while more charges detonated. He hadn't even bothered grabbing his gun system, nor did he do a radio check to see who of his squad was still alive. In fact, the headset under his kevlar was making sputtering cracks and squeaks.

Bullets rebounded off the asphalt, as Wendell ran away from the Walmark parking lot. His 30 mile an hour sprint carried him for a few hundred yards, more than he could've as a giant were he not terrified for his life. Even when slowing for lack of air, Wendell stayed on the run, losing track of which way he was going. All he knew is that the shooters were firing at him while also on the move.

Vampires didn't need to catch their breath, though they were no faster than humans or most Pentacastes. Reaching another intersection, Wendell saw a couple vampires setting up with guns taken off his squad members, and they braced themselves before firing the 20 mm cannons.

Wendell dove for the ground, though he knew he was still visible. The vampires were ten times stronger than humans, but they just didn't have the needed body weight to effectively stabilize the big guns during recoil. Their shots snapped high over Wendell.

When the vampires reset their appropriated guns Wendell took his chance. He had a good three seconds to get completely across the intersection, and behind a building before they got a solid bead on him. From there, Wendell ran slower more worried about making noise than making distance. The last light of day was already gone, and that mean the sight advantage was to the nightcrawlers.

At least their hearing was no better, which Wendell was grateful for when the couple vampires tromped around the corner only after Wendell had ducked into an ally. Hearing them running down the middle of the street, Wendell ducked as low as he could behind a dumpster, and hoped his body heat didn't radiate too far beyond the metal container.

Luck was with Wendell, as he heard them stop at the ally and spit curses before continuing on. Rather than risk going back out on the road behind them, Wendell moved further through the ally and out onto the next street.

Only then did he try calling his unit. "Sergeant Marris? Marris, you copy? Shit."

Feeling that the headset had shifted to cause discomfort, Wendell took his specially built large helmet to remove his radio, and then put the helmet back on.

Wendell stuffed the radio into his pack and headed north, frequently switching between S High Street and Parsons Avenue without checking his watch or gauging what ground he covered, until the two streets diverged. Thereafter, he stuck to S High Street.

In the full onset of night, he came upon the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Like the rest of the city, there was no power or lights. What it offered was multi-level parking that Wendell could high craw through, and maybe stand in a crouching posture while avoiding visibility.

Wendell's head turned back and forth, as he searched for possible vampires or maybe Gaia Cult holdouts, as he trotted over to the convention center. He ducked into the parking entrance and, hunched over, kept going deeper while fishing out his light. That at least still worked, and so Wendell turned it on for a few seconds at a time to spot obstacles or other hazards.

Finding an isolated corner with one relatively narrow field of view for approach, Wendell hunkered down and shut off his light for the night. Sleep eluded him, though he was glad of it for needing to stay alert for trouble. Mental images of his three-giant team on their faces and unmoving haunted him.

He just ran away. All the Guard's training both as a soldier and an officer, and it all vaporized under the heat of the ambush.

Eventually the darkness stopped looking like pitch black, and Wendell leaned out of his corner to see that dawn had come. The vampire cult would have to be under cover, and so Wendell decided safe enough to leave.

Coming back outside, he was able see better the ruin of the city. Cars scattered by crashes or just jams that forced occupants to abandon their vehicles. In the early days of the siege, Wendell recalled the blue flames that burned steal and concrete in clear defiance of thermodynamics and thermochemistry. Those had faded, but the effect they had left a jarring impression.

One that drew Wendell's attention was a Volkswagon on its back and the weddle transaxle visible. It was a bit melted, but otherwise looked solid enough and cooled down.

Wendell gazed into the distance toward where the ambush had happened. He could imagine those vampires huddled in their daytime refuges, and maybe asleep.

"Yeah," Wendell nodded to himself, and strode over to the Volkswagon. "That's about the right size."

The first touch Wendell made was tentative to be sure it was cool to the touch. After that, he wrapped his two massive hands up under the weddle transaxle close to the transmission. Bracing with his foot, Wendell pulled up hard.

Alter Idem had given giants the physique and build of weightlifters just to offset the greater leverage disadvantage. Mindfully keeping his arms close to his body, in conjunction with the metal fatigue that the unnatural fire had wrought, Wendell was able to break the axle loose at that end. A little working of the other end and the axle broke from the car.

Wendell adjusted his grip on the impromptu hammer and felt a smirk grow on his face. "Well, Mjolnir, we got some business to take care of."

Adopting a brisk walk not much faster than a human jogging pace, Wendell got back to the ambush sight faster than his nighttime retreat from it.

Back at the super center, Wendell saw what remained of the other Guardsmen. Human and giant alike, they were bled dry. Wendell accounted for his entire squad, and knew he'd failed them all. At least he could settle the score.

Going around the back, Wendell found the loading door and entered through it, without having to duck. The vampires had left them open because at no point in the day did direct sunlight beam into the receiving area. However, Wendell suspected they'd camp out further down.

Sure enough, there they were at the opposite end of the vast stockroom, a dozen vampires all lain about as though sleeping off a wild drinking party. Blood stained their clothes, which Wendell thought looked like they had just lifted from store racks and shelves.

The first couple of heads Wendell cracked open with the hammer came without stirring the others. After a moment, one nightcrawler awoke and happened to exchange eye contact with Wendell. Human-looking eyes, albeit larger, stared into those jet black orbs under slitted eyelids. Enraged, Wendell roared as he ran over to the waking vampire and brought the transmission hammer down onto the fiend's head with a third satisfying heavy crack.

However, the other vampires were now wide awake and scrambling for guns. Armored by the loss of his squad, Wendell showed no hesitation and more than a little luck in getting to vampires before they could get their guns on him.

At last, Wendell came across Sergeant Marris' heavy gun system after slaying the vampires. Using that, Wendell cleared other buildings nearby and gunned down vampires he found there, as well as a few humans conned into helping. Later, a drone unit flew overhead, and Wendell was able to arm signal to it that he needed rescue.

Before night returned, a convoy of trucks arrived to recover the bodies of Guardsman and Wendell himself, who boarded the last truck out. In his hand was Mjolnir, which drew the eyes of other Guardsmen riding with him back to the staging area.

Wendell uttered not a word until he was medically screened and certified fit for debriefing.


End file.
